


Relatively Close

by NETHERW4RT



Category: Video Blogging RPF
Genre: 5+1 Things, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Boys Being Boys, Denial of Feelings, Developing Relationship, Dorks in Love, Feelings Realization, Flirting, Fluff, Friendship, Friendship/Love, Happy Ending, Hijinks & Shenanigans, Idiots in Love, M/M, Mild Hurt/Comfort, Misunderstandings, Mutual Pining, Pining, Romance, Romantic Friendship, Swearing, Teasing, but without the comfort, deffo flerting, hence the happy ending, honestly the swearing is why its rated t, i guess?, its not really mentioned but dream likes him back this whole time, oh yeah and also, only a bit though, sorta??? for the last three
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-13
Updated: 2020-09-13
Packaged: 2021-03-06 14:26:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 1,758
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26440369
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NETHERW4RT/pseuds/NETHERW4RT
Summary: The five times George didn’t call Dream by his real name. And the one time he did.
Relationships: Clay | Dream/GeorgeNotFound (Video Blogging RPF)
Comments: 9
Kudos: 817





	1. The Call

**Author's Note:**

> not me being on the mcyt bullshit train 😭😭

“ _George—_!”

George jerked the phone back from his ear as the air-shattering shriek of Dream’s voice carried over from the other side of the screen. He had been expecting a reaction like that, frankly, but he wasn’t prepared for the volume that came with it (he should’ve been, knowing Dream). The call would’ve ended there thanks to an instinctive motion of George’s finger onto the button, though luckily he had hit just slightly to the right of it so Dream still had time to scold him for thinking it was funny to tell his mother they were dating.

“What—what’s wrong, Dream?” George managed to ask through giggles and stutters; BadBoyHalo and Sapnap said they had wanted to chime in as well, but they were only there for the entertainment and now he was actually starting to feel bad from how Dream’s tone was, so he quickly muted them before another word was said.

“You _know_ what’s wrong!”

“Do I—?”

“George!” Dream snapped again, clearly sounding annoyed at the counter, though to George it felt like he wasn’t actually angry at all—in fact, for a moment he could’ve swore Dream had let out a breathy laugh. “You told my mom that we’re _gay_?”

George hesitated a moment, then sprung on another stupid reply: “We’re not?”

The moment of silence hit and George began to laugh awkwardly; maybe Dream had thought he wasn’t joking? That would be embarrassing as all hell, though.

“Ahaha, I got you so good, Dream!” He squealed like a child that had successfully found their parent after a game of peek-a-boo. “You’re such a loser,” he continued, voice trailing off softer as he hit the red button at the bottom of his screen; really, he felt like the loser here. That was such a stupid joke, yet the silence felt louder than Dream’s shrieking voice.

It was painful, but he was still streaming so he did his best to shrug it off.

“Oh my god,” George muttered, struggling to keep a mischievous smile on his face while the frustrated voices of Sapnap and Bad came leaping through the screen at him once more with a click of a button. “That was—that was _terrifying_.”

And he really wasn’t lying—it was, in one way or another.


	2. Not Tired

The computer screen was getting fuzzier and fuzzier by the minute, contrarily to George’s mumbled response, “‘m not tired at all.”

“You sound tired,” Dream whispered back through the microphone, watching the screen shift when George adjusted his elbow against the desk. “You look tired too. Your eyes are barely open.”

“That’s…just ‘cause I’m resting them, idiot.”

“Who’s the idiot?”

“You, Dream.”

Dream smiled at him—they did this a lot, video calling, that is, since they still didn’t have the time to meet up. It seemed like the day wouldn’t come anytime soon, either, with how their schedules matched up—still, this was better than nothing. They got to see each other, and even mimic real life a little when they pressed their hands against the screen and laughed at how awkward they both were about it.

It was nice, but they both wanted to see each other.  _ Feel _ each other, even if it was only for a few hours.

“You’re the weird one, George. You’d rather fall asleep with me than hang up and go to bed?”

George grumbled a bit against the palm of his hand, not entirely hearing the words. “Said ‘m not tired.”

“Alright, alright,” Dream chuckled adoringly and leaned back in his chair, “I’ll stay with you until you fall asleep face-first on your desk then, ‘kay?”

Though it sounded like a joke, George still felt more at ease knowing that Dream was going to stay up and watch him until one—or both—of them passed out; he faintly wondered how funny it would be if they both fell asleep with the monitors on and woke up to each other the next morning.

“Okay.”


	3. Flirting

“Don’t you two _ever_ get tired of flirting?” Sapnap asked, only half-joking this time.

George could feel his cheeks begin to burn at the question, but he had to keep at least _somewhat_ composed—they were still streaming, after all. “I—we’re not _flirting_!” He countered, covering his mouth with a hand as he laughed through the gaps between his fingers; it was true that sometimes they would flirt on purpose in order to please their fans, but they weren’t _trying_ to do anything like that now—at least he wasn’t. George was never really sure what Dream was thinking, though he guessed that’s part of why he liked him so much.

“Yeah, come on Sapnap,” Dream butted in, “you know we only flirt _off_ camera.”

“ _Dream_!” George yelped into the microphone, swaying in his chair as he began to laugh more; the stream chat flooded with messages two times faster than they had been before, and he could tell they were getting a kick out of this—hell, even he was. “You weren’t supposed to tell them that,” he replied in feigned panic, tugging at his bottom lip with his teeth.

Dream’s iconic laughter carried over through his headphones and he found himself growing even more red. Even Sapnap was laughing now, sputtering over himself about something like “You guys are such _great friends_ ,” which was obviously sarcasm only meant for this one stream.

“It’s—is it even that funny?” The grin on George’s face wouldn’t go away, even after asking that; it wasn’t really funny, not to him, but Dream’s laughter was contagious and he couldn’t push away the smile that was forcing itself on him. 

“It was fucking _hilarious_ ,” Sapnap replied in some sort of euphoria as Dream finally managed to calm himself down a bit more.

“ _Hilarious_!” Dream echoed in a higher-pitched tone than usual, still struggling to stifle the bubbling of laughter over what seemed like a stupid quip to George. “God, I wasn’t expecting you to respond like that, George.”

George cocked his head to the side before realizing his confusion was a little _too_ visible for his audience. “Sorry, sorry, you’re right,” he leaned over and rested his cheek in the curled fist of his palm, “I’ll make it up to you after the stream.”

“Oh, will you now?”

George exhaled another small laugh through his nostrils and hummed, raising his eyebrows. “Will I? Hmm, we’ll see.”

“I guess we will.”


	4. For the Fans

George scrolled tiredly through the dark layout of Twitter while stretching an arm over his head; that day’s stream had gone on for a little longer than he had anticipated, but nonetheless he was glad everyone was able to enjoy it.

In the middle of a yawn he caught a glimpse of another joke tweet Dream had made only a few hours earlier:  _ I can’t believe George still hasn’t fallen in love with me yet. _

It was simple, but so overwhelmingly stupid that George couldn’t help but laugh. He stared at the text for a long moment, fondly, before typing out a fitting reply:  _ I can’t believe Dream still hasn’t confessed his love for me over a stream yet. _

Fitting, yes, but stupid? Even more of a yes.

His likes and replies blew up on that (for obvious reasons) within minutes of posting it, but it was even funnier to him when a call from Dream buzzed eagerly on the phone screen. George picked up after a few seconds of letting it ring.

“Dream?” He asked, just as confused as he was entertained.

“George,” Dream’s familiar voice came through, “you’re such an idiot.” 

George grinned. “Not as much as you are, though.”

“Oh, shut up. You know you love me.”

“Yeah? I’m sure you love me  _ way  _ more.”

They both laughed together, then settled into a comfortable silence; though it was comfortable, it seemed tense all the same.

“George?” Dream finally piped up after what felt like forever.

“Yes?”

“I’ve got a surprise for you.”


	5. Surprise

“What…?” George stared at the photo Dream had sent him earlier that day; it was only a picture of a local restaurant out in the city—he could’ve googled something like that easily on his own if he wanted to get something to eat.

The message was a simple one: “Go grab some lunch.” And though George was starting to suspect something was up, he couldn’t get his hopes up too much—there was no way Dream was actually thinking of flying all the way out here _now_ , was he?

It seemed impossible. George shook his head.

It was a bit colder than he expected and now that George was already almost to the restaurant, he was regretting having left behind his jacket. He glanced up at the stoplight and tapped his foot gently against the concrete in a rhythm to occupy himself while waiting.

“Oh, sorry,” a stranger mumbled as they came up behind George, lightly bumping into his shoulder.

George glanced up and gave a polite wave of his hand. “Oh, it’s no—huh?”

The stranger, who now was clearly classified as the Dream that George knew and loved, smiled at the shorter boy next to him. “Nice weather, right, George? Though you’re a little underdressed in my opinion.”

George gaped at him, almost jumping backwards into the oncoming traffic in surprise. “ _Clay_?!”

Even Dream was shocked at that. “Oh, wow, George,” he muttered, rubbing the back of his neck awkwardly. “That’s a bit embarrassing now that it’s, like, the real thing, or whatever.”

“Why—why are you here?!”

“Didn’t wanna see me that badly?” Dream chuckled and shuffled out of his jacket to drape over George’s shoulders; it was only slightly difficult with how surprised he was, but it was just like George to lean into his touch and allow him to cover him. It _was_ Dream, after all.

“That’s not it,” George grumbled in response, blushing as Dream took his hand to lead him across the street when the light turned. “I—I didn’t expect you to do something like this. That’s all.”

“I _did_ say it was a surprise, though.”

“I thought you’d just—I don’t know, ship me a present or something?”

Dream burst into laughter and covered his mouth with a balled fist. “Idiot,” he muttered through grit teeth.

George knit his brows together and jabbed Dream in the side with his elbow; enough to hurt, but not _too_ much. He squeezed his hand in apology afterward. “You took too long.”

“No, maybe you’re right, I should’ve just shipped you something instead.”

“Oh, _shut up_ , Dream!”

**Author's Note:**

> sorry it’s not super heavy on the romance, you can take this as their friendship or a romance tbh I just like their dynamic 🤘 thx for reading!


End file.
